Easy, Tiger!

It’s Monday. You know what that means! Music time!

Now I don’t know of Ryan Adams’ political views. As far as I know he’s completely apolitical. I do seem to remember him saying some anti-Bush remark at a concert one time, but I could have just imagined it. Anyway, forget briefly that this is a political blog and feel the groove (listen to some tracks at the top right of the page)…

Ryan Adams’ new album, Easy Tiger, officially drops June 26, but since I am a man of means, I’ve procured it a tad early. (Don’t worry, I’ll still buy it when it comes out.) And it is a real stunner. It’s different from his past albums in ways and completely the same in others. One gets the impression that it’s the kind of album that could define a career. It’s that good.

It’s conventional wisdom that Adams’ masterpiece was Heartbreaker, his first solo album after the dissolution of his band, Whiskeytown. Now it’s not as head-and-shoulders above the rest of his catalog as most think, but it was his first landmark. And for the same reason that Easy Tiger is his second.

Whiskeytown ran the gamut from the honky-tonk of Faithless Street to the relaxed, (almost) adult contemporary pop sound of Pneumonia. Following the break-up, Adams synthesized all these sounds, resulting in the sprawling, almost drunkenly free-wheeling, love-sick country punk sound of Heartbreaker.

Easy Tiger is in the same vein. 2005 saw Adams explore, in great depth, the three sides of his current musical tastes; the alt-country rock of Cold Roses, the authentic country Jacksonville City Nights, and the free writing and meandering introspection on 29. He’s combined all these sounds and ideas that constitute his musical make-up in his most accessible, consistent, and perfectly structured album so far.

And it’s his most mature. His rep as a pain-in-the-ass to work with and a party monster, sometimes drunkenly stammering on-stage, have been reflected in his music; his lack of focus has been apparent as many of his past albums seemed to fall apart halfway through side B. Easy Tiger is fast, focused, and mercilessly free of extraneous fluff, a trim 13 song, 38 minute cycle.

Thematically, it’s a break for him as well. He’s still in love with someone who doesn’t love him back (or that he pissed off so much she won’t call back); it is still Ryan Adams after all. But this is grown-up man, resigned and even melancholy, without the tortured heartbreak of his past. He describes himself as “fractured” in the exquisite “Two (listen above),” he ponders the fatalistic idea of being destined to be hurt in “These Girls” (itself a welcome rewrite of a favorite unreleased track “Hey, Mrs. Lovely), and he thrice contemplates giving up, as in going home (”Off Broadway,” “Two”) or going to bed (”These Girls”). And in my favorite track, “The Sun Also Sets,” (listen above) he turns his sights much higher…

There it is/ we are only one push from the nest,
There it is/ We are only one argument from death,
There it is/ The sun rises but the sun also sets

Back to front, this is the most enjoyable and listenable album Ryan Adams has made. I cited its length as a strong point, and that’s very true. But I still want more. All of his past albums by the end I’m pretty much done and ready to move on. They overstay their welcomes. This one I could (and have for two days now) listen to over and over and find new moments to excite or amuse or inspire me. I can’t pay an album any higher compliment.

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